Since 2011 in this Seminar we studied various theories of space, more explicit or more implicit in the works of philosophers, sociologists, anthropologists, ethnologists, geographers etc.
Starting the Summer-semester of 2014, we will focus on a very particular concept, while still working in the larger frame of the philosophy of space and architecture. The concept in question is the „Anthropocene”: a chronological term first used in geology, to label the current geological era, in which humans constitute the main element which shape the face of the Earth (as well as her entrails and the atmosphere around her).
We will try to widen our perspectives on what „space” means. In the same time, we will focus on the influence that our accounts on space, as well as the way we produce space, influence our habitat itself, the one which, when all is said and done, makes possible our very activity of space-production.
A working level of English is required, but most importantly an active participation in the Seminar.
Some of the key authors and concepts to be introduced:
* Henri Lefebvre: the production of space, the reproduction of social relations of production, the right to the city /// Critics of Henri Lefebvre – Manuel Castells, David Harvey, Edward Soja (: spatial justice)
* Martin Heidegger / Maurice Merleau-Ponty: In-der-Welt-sein / être au monde; building means inhabiting (“Bauen ist Wohnen”) / the primacy of the dimension of depth
* Paul Virilio: dromology, speed-space, military space, aesthetics of disappearance
* Michel Foucault: heterotopia
* Zeno of Elea: paradoxes of space
* Otto Friedrich Bollnow: forms of inhabitancy in the Western world, space anthropology, hodological space
* Zygmunt Baumann: liquid modernity, the tourist syndrome; le flâneur
* Bruno Latour: “buildings do not live in Euclidian space”, the Actor-Network Theory (ANT)
* Immanuel Kant: space as a priori intuition
* Parmenides of Elea: being as a perfect sphere
Our analysis of „Anthropocene” will rely on texts and conferences of Bruno Latour, Isabelle Stengers, Peter Sloterdijk, Clive Hamilton.

Within the Program of the Winter Semester, the students will be encouraged to expand their perspectives on the topics discussed in class, with a series of extracurricular activities. Berlin offers a great variety of artistic and cultural events that can enrich the content of the course. Still to be defined, these activities can cover: Exhibitions, Theater, Cinema, Performances, Conferences. They can be organised during the semester and take place in or outside the class hours, in the form of individual assignment or as a group activity when possible.